rideandfly

Purchased our LE2 Ollie used, it is our dream retirement camper, too. Our Ollie's "Rear Oliver Sign" leaked and the top of the dinette window leaked, too. The dinette window leak was from from the exterior porch light above the window. The light was removed and wire holes in the hull sealed along with top and sides of the old style exterior fixture. Also drilled a drain hole in the bottom of the old style light fixture. No more leaks in that area! 👍 Old style porch light fixture: The following photo shows where rear Oliver LED light sign leak was dripping between hulls. Water traveled between the inner and outer hulls coming out of the bottom left side of the rear window on the curbside mattress. Removed the Oliver lens and cleaned out all of the old sealant. Resealed Oliver lens and no more leaks! 😁 All campers will eventually leak, good thing about the Oliver, when a leak is repaired there is not any wood damage to worry about!

I retired from the railroad. Debbie and I use railroad train movement (lamp) hand signals, if dark with flashlight, for backing, move forward, and stop. If more than one person tries to give signals or person giving signals is out of sight, the Ollie movement stops. We don't worry about air brake application, hand brake application, and release air brake signals! 😁

Some folks may be impatient, like said earlier if I'm already backing in, I continue backing watching Debbie give signals. One time I was trying to back into a campsite I already paid for on line, but our name had not been placed on the site post. Another couple was standing on the site when I started to back in, they wanted to camp on it with their tent. Got out and told them I already paid for it and to talk to the Ranger with questions. They eventually left after a short discussion. Yep, when taking check rides for different pilot's certificates and ratings, sometimes the examiner would try to distract you during the preflight walk-around and cockpit checks. I learned to place my finger on the last completed checklist item and stop everything I was doing until the distraction stopped, then continue where I left off. Like Mike said, it's difficult to talk to folks during certain operations.

Beautiful captured shots of the area!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camped earlier this week at David Crockett Birthplace State Park TN in North East TN. It was in the upper 80s close to 90 some days. Found a shady campsite in the small RV area to make it pleasant. Campsites are close together in this area, but really enjoyed the shady trees. It's a beautiful mountainous area. Debbie feeding a donkey at the Crockett home-place.

Looking forward to camping and testing one Lithium battery!

Yep, was wondering about power consumption with appliance changes! 👍

Wow, that's impressive weight savings by replacing refrigerator, ac, and water heater. Thought we would be testing the single BattleBorn 100AH lithium later this week at Mt. Pisgah on the Blue Ridges Parkway, but looks like it will be June before camping somewhere without shore-power.

John, Oliver ran out of 3500 pound axles during construction of our LE2. They installed LE1 5200 pound axles on our LE2 and very few others. Been reading your thread about brakes.

Guess two 5200 pound axles and Commercial tires might be a little overkill on a 4940 pound trailer! 🙂

I have not weighted items transported in Ollie, but interested in keeping Ollie's total weight low. We are minimalist taking only what's needed for each trip. Weighed our LE2 Ollie May 20 on the way home from a camping trip. Ready to camp weight is 4940 pounds with empty water tanks except for full 6 gallon hot water heater, this keeps Ollie under TV recommended WDH weight. We do not have factory installed solar panels. One thing done increasing overall weight was installation of 11" memory foam mattresses. For weight reductions installed one 100AH BattleBorn lithium battery, only use two 1 gallon LP gas tanks (last 2 years), and moved Ollie's spare tire to the pickup truck bed. Load refrigerator & closet to keep Ollie's tongue weight at 10% for trailer stability. Just installed new Cooper LT Discoverer HT3 commercial tires that weigh 37 pounds each, believe most new Ollies have this type of tire. When camping without shore-power, keep a gen-set & suitcase solar panel in the TV not affecting Ollie's weight. One 1 gallon LP bottle will run the refrigerator and lightly used cook top for 4 days, can lift a full 1 gallon LP bottle with 3 fingers. Use the gen-set for power to water heater when without shore-power.

In NC looked liked the fuel shortage was easing so planned a trip to Wilkesboro NC. Debbie and I had the privilege of spending time with David and Kathy (Patriot) for a few days at Bandit's Roost ACE campground. We had a fine time exploring the area for a few days with perfect camping weather! Patriot's Beautiful Ollie: Our Ollie: One of the places visited was Raffaldini Vineyards NC:

Agree with the idea of having a window and/or vent over the kitchen countertop area!

+1 We would be out camping & testing our single BattleBorn 100 AH Lithium battery right now, but delayed with the fuel shortage. We don't have factory solar on our LE2. Can't wait to get the new Lithium battery out for a real world test on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Testing at home has proved this battery requires less than 1/2 the time needed for recharging compared to the previous two type 27 AGM 12V 100AH batteries with our 100W Renogy solar suitcase. Confident on poor solar days recharging with the gen-set should yield shorter recharge times, will see. Thought our 100W Renogy Solar Suitcase was marginal and needed more panels until buying a single BattleBorn 100AH battery. We use LP gas to run the refrigerator when away from shore power and do not have an inverter. We have all we need with solar, 2000W gen-set, and LP gas when away from shore power.

Just returned home, some stations are completely out of gasoline, but some have diesel available with no lines, Denver NC at the intersection of NC Rt16 & NC Rt.73.

The QT just ran out of gas/diesel and others are shutting down pumps one by one at Denver, NC.

We have not encountered any fuel problems in Denver NC, so far. Gas prices up to $1.79 to 1.89 per gallon for regular. Seeing 15 cents increase per day per gallon this week since Sunday. Waiting for a resolution to the pipeline issue before heading out camping with Ollie.

David, You're welcome! Will let you know when I'm going to repack Ollie's bearings & replace seals, good to have in the Info Tool Kit!

Beautiful area & photos!!!!!

Yep, always keep something on my desk to pick up and look at while on hold, ect. Job I retired from was a rebuild/manufacturing industrial machine shop in a rough neighborhood with a roof surface area of about 350,000 square feet. Had a pint jar about 1/2 full of 45 and 9mm slugs the roofers would pull out of the roof sitting my desk. Evidently folks would shoot their guns up in the air at night with our roof area being so large it would catch many falling slugs puncturing the roof starting leaks. The jar of slugs was a good conversation starter! 😬

John, Have a pin sitting on my desk. It only has one hole for grease for the bronze bushing. During EZ flex kit installation, followed Dexter instructions for direction to point pin's grease hole, but still need to take a little weight off of one of the pins for it to take grease. Looks like a 1/8" hole. https://www.dexteraxle.com/user_area/content_media/raw/059-A45-00E-ZFlexInstructionSheet.pdf

Nice showroom! Sounds like a fine trip with good results!

Calypso, Looks like a great air show to see F22, F16, A10, P51, and F86 flying formation together. Wonderful shots, bet it was loud, too!

I'm in the process of signing up for Visible and trying to use "BestPhonePlans" party name in the Promotions and Referrals box that Andrew mentioned in the first post. Not able to get $25 per month rate, yet. Will wait to see if Andrew replies.

Andrew, Just got off the phone with my Son and he said the same thing! Thanks!